Questions to ask before installing any COD app

A COD app sits in your checkout, and many also read your orders and customers. So before you install one, get clear answers to nine questions: what it changes at checkout, where its rules don't run, what data it reads and keeps, what each plan includes, which Shopify plan it needs, what happens when you uninstall, how it handles Arabic, whether it fits Gulf addresses, and who answers when something breaks. The answers are in the app's listing, Shopify's install screen, the developer's privacy policy and help pages, or one email to support.

1. What exactly does it change at checkout?

COD apps work in quite different ways. Some hide or rename COD inside Shopify's checkout. Some take COD orders in their own form instead of the checkout. Others add a fee, ask for a deposit or send the shopper a phone code. Each one changes something different for your shoppers, so start here. COD form apps vs checkout rules and hide COD, COD fee, partial COD or OTP compare them.

Then ask:

• Which payment methods can it change? An app meant for COD should leave cards, wallets and buy now, pay later options alone.
• How does it recognise your COD method? Many apps look for a name such as "Cash on Delivery". If you renamed yours, or use an Arabic name, check that the app still finds it.
• What happens if its settings are missing or broken? The safe answer is that it changes nothing. Ask whether it could ever hide every payment method at once.
• What does a shopper see when a rule hides COD? Your online methods should still show. If COD is your only active method, a hidden COD leaves that shopper with no way to pay.

2. Where do its rules run, and where don't they?

If the app uses a payment customization, Shopify decides where it runs. Shopify lists the Shopify admin, POS, order editing, draft orders handled in the admin, the Create Order API and recurring subscription orders as places where payment customizations don't run. They do run on the online checkout and on a draft order's checkout link.

Ask:

• Does the app create orders itself, for example from a form? Checkout rules, its own or another app's, don't apply to orders created through the API.
• How many payment customizations does it use? A store can have at most 25 active, which matters if you already run other payment apps.
• How should you test it? A good answer uses a real checkout, such as a draft order's checkout link, not the payment screen in the admin.

3. What store data does it read, and what does it keep?

Before you install, Shopify's install screen lists the personal data the app can view (such as customers) and the store data it can view and edit (such as products, orders and discounts). It also links to the developer's privacy policy. Read both before you click install.

Ask:

• Does it need everything it asks for? An app that hides COD above a cart total has no need for your customers' names, phone numbers or addresses. An app that sends confirmation messages does need phone numbers.
• How far back can it read orders? Shopify says an app with access to recent orders can see only the last 60 days. If the app promises reports on older refusals, ask how.
• Where is the data stored, and who else receives it? An app that sends SMS or WhatsApp messages passes phone numbers to a messaging provider. Ask which one.
• What happens to the data after you uninstall? Shopify sends the developer a request to erase your customers' personal information 48 hours after you uninstall, and says to check with the developer that it was deleted.

4. What does each plan include, and how is it billed?

• What does the free plan cover, and where are the limits: number of rules, orders, messages or countries?
• Is there a charge per order or per message on top of the monthly price? Apps that send messages often pass on what the messages cost them. See confirming COD orders by phone, SMS or WhatsApp for how those costs work.
• How long is the free trial, and what happens on the day it ends?
• Does billing go through Shopify? Shopify says uninstalling a paid app cancels its future recurring charges, though you may still be billed for the current cycle. Charges billed outside Shopify aren't cancelled when you uninstall, so you'd have to cancel those with the developer.
• Can you try the paid features on a development store before you pay?

5. Does it need a particular Shopify plan?

• Shopify says stores on any plan can use public apps from the Shopify App Store that contain Functions, while custom apps with Functions need Shopify Plus.
• Adding fields or steps inside Shopify's information, shipping and payment pages uses checkout UI extensions, which Shopify makes available only to stores on Shopify Plus. If an app promises a new field "at checkout" and you aren't on Plus, ask where that field actually appears. It may be in a form that comes before the checkout.

6. What happens when you uninstall it?

• Does COD go back to normal at checkout straight away?
• Does it add code to your theme? Shopify warns that some apps add theme code that isn't removed automatically when you uninstall. Ask for the removal steps before you install.
• What stays in your store? Customer tags, order tags and notes an app added are ordinary Shopify data and stay behind. That's often useful, but you should know what they are and how to remove them.
• What can't you get back? Shopify says some apps keep data you can't recover after uninstalling, so export anything you need first.

7. Does it handle Arabic properly?

For Gulf stores, ask:

• Can shoppers on your Arabic checkout see an Arabic COD name, such as «الدفع عند الاستلام», while everyone else sees English? Can you edit both names?
• Does it recognise COD methods with Arabic names, including common spelling differences such as «الاستلام» and «الإستلام»?
• Is the app's own settings page available in Arabic, laid out right to left?
• If it sends messages or shows a form, who wrote the Arabic, and can you change it?

8. Does it fit Gulf addresses and currencies?

• Can its rules use emirates, regions or cities? Cash on delivery in the UAE explains why rules based on postcodes don't fit UAE addresses.
• Does a city rule accept both English and Arabic spellings, such as "Al Ain" and «العين»?
• If you sell in more than one currency, how does it compare amounts? A limit set in your shop's currency should be checked against the converted cart total, not the number the shopper sees in their own currency.

9. Who answers when something goes wrong?

• Who is the developer, and where are they based?
• How do you reach support, how fast do they reply, and in which languages?
• Are there help pages that explain each setting and its edge cases?
• Is there a dated changelog, so you can see what changed and when?

A simple test: email support one of the questions on this page before you install. The answer, and how long it takes to arrive, tells you a lot about what support will be like later.

Where to find each answer

Khaleeji COD publishes its answers to several of these on what Khaleeji COD never changes: it only touches COD, changes nothing if its settings are broken, and keeps no customer data outside your store.